Yes, I know it looks like something that would never happen, but since the launch of Facebook’s URL shortening service yesterday, TechCrunch confirmed that Facebook will now have the ability to send your status updates from the site onto Twitter.  Surprisingly, this will be an option directly on your Facebook status bar, and you will not need a Facebook app to use this.  A similar feature currently exists on Fan Pages, but will now be available to all profiles. (more…)

URL shorteners have been extremely helpful within the past year or so.  With the use of micro-blogging sites like Twitter, which limits you to 140 character, the use of site shortening services have seen an increase in traffic. 

Today, Facebook users have noticed that the social networking site has come up with its own shortening service.  Known as fb.me, users will now see this to help shorten links they post on the site.  A simple search on Twitter shows that many have already started using the new service.  An example, if you type “fb.me/iePlexus” you’ll be automatically taken to iePlexus’ Facebook Fan Page.  

While in the middle of writing about Facebook’s new feature, Google also announced they have created their own shortener, Goo.gl.  In a blog post early this afternoon, the company says while they are excited for the launch, the service will only be available through the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. However, it looks like Google wants to eventually open the service up to everyone. 

It should be neat to see how both these services succeed.  However, if companies like Facebook & Google are creating their own shortening services, exclusive site shorteners like tinyurl& bit.ly could no longer exist.

By far, one of my favorite things about social media is the amount of free things you can get.  For example, over the summer, I was tweeting back and forth with FOX Chicago news anchor Nancy Loo.  She had mentioned that one of her co-anchors had never had popcorn from Garrett Popcorn, a famous Chicago popcorn eatery.  I had mentioned that I had never had it either and within a matter of minutes I received a Twitter response from Garrett Popcorn inviting me to one of their many stores to try some of their popcorn.  Needless to say, I eventually made my way to one of their shops for some delicious free popcorn.  Ahh, the power of Twitter.

I’ve told you about a few social media contests in the past few months.  Back in October, I shared a contest with you where the Colorado tourism board decided to offer a trip to Colorado for people who had never seen snow in the Snow at First Sight contest.  While an official winner has yet to be determined, the contest is designed around social media.  Users were asked to create a video and promote their video and the contest through Facebook & Twitter.  28 people are currently competing for the trip.  Voting is currently taking place and will soon close as 10 semi-finalist are chosen for a chance to win a dream trip and share their experience through social media.  (more…)

Last week, I shared with you a report from The Big Money, which came up with a list of some of the world’s top 50 companies using Facebook to their advantage.  After the article was released, the online magazine revealed another list known as the Twitter 12. 

To figure out who would make it on the list, the company asked themselves one main question: Which companies get the most out of Twitter?   The Big Money looked at a number of statistics, such as the number of followers, Twitter growth from September through November, how often and what exactly are these companies tweeting.  The magazine only included companies with more than a million followers.   (more…)

Facebook seems to have yet another statistic which will amaze us once again.  Last week on December 4, Facebook’s feature, Facebook Connect celebrated its one year anniversary since joining the site.  Late Wednesday, the company announced some pretty amazing statistics.

“Today, we are celebrating the first anniversary of Facebook Connect from the LeWeb conference in France,” said Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. ”Facebook Connect is now available on more than 80,000 websites, and more than 60 million people are using the service to connect with their friends everywhere.” (more…)

Facebook has always been on top, when it comes to user privacy and keeping their information secure.  On Monday, Facebook announced they were in the process of forming the Global Advisory Board.  The group consists of five organizations including Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

Facebook plans on regularly meeting with the group to get up to date information on security issues, to help protect user information. (more…)

In hopes to get off the Twitter growth plateau, the microblogging company is expanding it’s services to help online stores connect with their customers even more.  It seems nearly all online businesses have links encouraging you to follow the company on their social networking sites.

Twitter is launching a new API, which will allow anyone to sign up for a Twitter account from a third party application or website.  The new feature will allow anyone to watch Twitter conversations between the company and customers in real time on their sites.  (more…)

While many of us can’t imagine living without things “made in China,” the Chinese don’t seem very impressed with some of things coming out of the good ole USA. I’m most specifically talking about microblogging.  Sites like Twitter have swept America by storm this year.  In fact, a report from Sysomos earlier this year said that only 0.49% of Twitter users were from China, while 62.14% of Twitter’s population were Americans.  The British make up the second biggest amount of users on Twitter, but they are far behind America since they only account for 7.97% of Twitterers. 

While it seems no other microblogging site could beat Twitter at this time, Microsoft has launched a new microblogging service in China, hoping to beat Twitter’s success in a different country.  The new service is known as MSN Juku, which Microsoft is calling a “local innovation developed by MSN China.” (more…)

Yahoo, the second most popular search engine behind Google, is trying to gain some momentum.  Yahoo announced today that the company would be integrating  the popular social networking site, Facebook to the search engine. 

Yahoo has rolled out Facebook Connect on a number of its sites in hopes more Facebook users will use Yahoo to share items with the 350 million other users on the networking site.  Facebook is also likely to see an increase in users with the new integration.  Yahoo Mail, News, Sports, along with several other Yahoo sections, will connect with Facebook, allowing users to leave comment, share stories, and check out what their friends are posting from their news feed.  (more…)

Just the other week, we told that if Facebook were a nation, it’s population would be much larger than the United States.  While that remains true, Facebook’s population seems to be exploding.  Late last night, Facebook CEO & Founder Mark Zuckerberg had sent out an open letter to all of it’s users.  While we reported less than a month ago, that Facebook had 325 million users, Zuckerberg officially announced the site has more than 350 million users.  That is a tremendous increase just within the past month alone. 

Facebook has seen it’s number’s grow drastically this year, more than doubling in population.  Taking a look back, in August of 2008, the popular social networking site had just 100 million users.  It then took nearly 5 months for Facebook to gain 50 million users.  Since then, the site has grown on average 50 million users every 3-4 months.  This year alone, Facebook has gained 200 million users, and there are no signs of slowing down. (more…)